Britain troops remain while UN force builds up

Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair told his cabinet on Thursday that its forces would remain in Sierra Leone while UNAMSIL’s strength is built up over the next month, government spokesman Alastair Campbell said.

Ministers agreed that an effective UN force offered the best hope for lasting peace in Sierra Leone and confirmed that Britain would continue to offer technical and logistical support to help strengthen UNAMSIL, Campbell said.

British paratroopers, who arrived in Freetown earlier this week, are mandated to secure Lungi airport to release UN troops for deployment elsewhere in the country and allow the safe evacuation of British and other nationals wanting to leave. As well as logistical help, the British forces are providing information and advice to the UN to ensure “an effective, coherent operation on the ground,” British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told the BBC on Friday.

Asked if the British troops were now in Sierra Leone to engage in fighting, Cook replied: “We have repeatedly stressed - and I am very glad to take the opportunity to do it again - that those troops are not going to become combat troops with the UN forces.”

But he added: “If, of course, the rebels are foolish enough to attack them they will hit back and my advice to the rebels is ‘Don’t even think about it!’”